Persecution of Christianity in Japan

The Persecution of Christianity in Japan occurred from circa 1565 to 1873. From 1587 to the 1850s, Christianity was actively suppressed, and, after the Tokugawa Shogunate outlawed Christianity in 1620, the Christians in the country went underground at the risk of persecution and death. It was not until the restoration of Emperor Meiji that the ban was lifted, in 1873.

Sengoku Japan
The first Jesuit Catholic missionaries arrived in Japan during the 1540s under Francis Xavier, and the faith briefly flourished, reaching 150,000 converts in 1579; these converts included many daimyos in Kyushu, such as Yoshihiro Shimazu. Emperor Ogimachi attempted to ban Christianity in 1565 and 1568, but to little effect, and it was not until 1587 that the persecution of Christianity began in earnest. Hideyoshi Toyotomi banned Jesuit missionaries in 1587, and he grew concerned with the prevalence of Christianity among several feudal lords, fearing a repeat of the Ikko-Ikki radicals' uprising. In 1597, he had 26 Catholics crucified after he was told that the Catholic priests had been sent to infiltrate Japan in preparation for a Spanish takeover (just as had been done in the Americas).

Tokugawa Shogunate
Persecution continued sporadically, breaking out in 1613 and 1630. In 1614, Ieyasu Tokugawa officially banned Catholicism, and all missionaries were expelled during the mid-1600s. On 10 September 1632, 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki, and Catholicism was violently persecuted for several more decades. The church in Japan remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of missionaries in the 1800s. The Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-1638 led to the massacre of most of Nagasaki's Christians, and many Japanese were deported to Manila in the Spanish Philippines. The Catholic remnant in Japan operated underground, and suspected Christians were forced to trample on fumi-e (likenesses of Jesus) in order to prove that they were not Christian.

End
US Navy commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to foreign trade in 1853, and foreigners were granted residency in 1858. Christians continued to be persecuted until 1867, the last year of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and, in 1873, Emperor Meiji lifted the ban on Christianity. Numerous exiles returned to Japan, and the Urakami Cathedral was completed in 1895.